– OFFICIAL SELECTION: Dublin International Film Festival –
This witty, light-hearted Irish comedy-drama centres on a Friday night in a small-town cinema, as a series of comic mishaps draws an entire community together in unexpected and touching ways.
Set in the 1980s, Once Upon a Time in a Cinema follows Earl (Colin Morgan, Belfast) the owner/manager of a regional Irish cinema.
Amid financial struggles and failing equipment, Earl and his crew find themselves under siege from rogue rodents, belligerent patrons, a drunken projectionist, and the ultimate existential threat – the unstoppable march of new technology known as the Video Home System (VHS).
To add to the pressure, Earl’s younger brother Gerald (Calam Lynch) is desperate to sell the struggling family business to a local businessman, who is in attendance on this chaotic night to see the cinema in action before making his final offer…
Drawing from writer/director David Gleeson’s own experience growing up in a family of cinema owners, this is a love letter to the cinema experience.
